Summary
11 May 2011
Microsoft has confirmed it will buy the internet phone service Skype. The $8.5 billion deal will connect Microsoft with the 663 million people around the world who use Skype. It is the most money Microsoft has spent to buy another company.
Reporter:
Rory Cellan-Jones
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (left) and Skype boss Tony Bates
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Report
One is the giant business, whose software powers more than 90% of the world's computers. The other is the firm, which has revolutionised the way many communicate. Now Skype is being swallowed up by Microsoft.
It's just eight years since Skype started helping people to make calls over the internet for nothing, and this is the third time it's been bought and sold.
Microsoft has been struggling to prove it can compete with the likes of Google and Apple. Now as it tries to make an impact on the mobile-phone world, it wants Skype to help it become a bigger force.
Skype is now used by 170 million people around the world (each month), not just on their computers, but on the move - on their mobile phones and even on their tablet devices.
Microsoft wants to tap in to this connected community, but it's paying a huge price for a business that isn't even profitable.
Rory Cellan-Jones, 大象传媒 News
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Vocabulary
- powers
here, runs, or allows the computer to operate effectively
- revolutionised
introduced very big changes or new ideas to
- swallowed up
here, bought and taken over by a larger company
- over the internet
using a computer connected to the internet
- the likes of
here, companies such as
- to make an impact on
to be successful and have a strong effect on
- a bigger force
here, a larger organisation with more influence
- on the move
while travelling
- to tap in to
to become involved in or to make use of
- connected community
group of people who are linked or in contact with each other
